Minister backs city regions and elected mayors but poll reveals plans have little support By Jamie Hailstone and Heather Jameson Local authorities have signalled they are against city regions and directly-elected mayors in the same week as Ruth Kelly threw her backing behind the proposals. A survey for The MJ’s sister organisation MYB Research found council leaders and bosses would rather face restructuring than city regions. Asked what they would like to see in the local government White Paper, 15% of respondents gave their support to restructuring but only 4% wanted city regions, and 4% supported other types of regions. The most unpopular options in the survey were directly-elected mayors – with only 2% support – and the introduction of directly-elected cabinets (3%). The news puts councils on a collision course with the new communities and local government secretary after she used a speech to the Core Cities Summit in Bristol to back city regions and directly-elected mayors. Ms Kelly said city regions had ‘led regional growth in the last decade’, while listing the successes of London mayor, Ken Livingstone. ‘Few doubt that these successes depended in no small part on the mayor,’ she said. ‘And with leadership comes clear accountability so that citizens and council taxpayers know who to praise and who to blame.’ The idea of directly-elected mayors has been one of the Labour Government’s flagship policies. In March, the-then local government minister, David Miliband, admitted he thought Birmingham should have a directly-elected mayor. Ms Kelly also added: ‘If we are to compete as a nation, we must have cities which can hold their own on the global stage.’ She said city leadership was key, as many of the challenges the regions faced cut across local authority areas. The MYB Research poll found cuts in inspection and more self-regulation were what councils were most hoping for in the White Paper, with 18% and 17% of respondents choosing them respectively. This was closely followed by devolving power to neighbourhoods – with 15% of voters opting for double devolution – although only 11% wanted to see budgets at a neighbourhood level. Ms Kelly is under pressure from the Treasury to push through city regions. Her predecessor, David Miliband, was recently pulled into chancellor Gordon Brown’s office and told to introduce city regions. mjnews@hgluk.com l See MYB e-poll, page eight